2.5 years swimming lessons - no progress

[Mammyturtle]

My DD joined swimming lessons (stage 1) at about 4 years old , she is now nearly 6.5 years and is still in stage 1. She has made barely any progress. All her friends of the same age have all moved up to stage 5 lessons. DD tells me she wants to swim and she wants to continue her lessons. I’ve promised her an outing to a theme park to motivate her to move up to stage 2. When I watch her in the lessons she isn’t nervous and she enjoys being in the water , it’s more like she can’t be bothered to kick her legs. I’ve tried teaching her myself and she won’t kick her legs for me, she just walks round the small pool holding the float and is too distracted if there’s cute babies in the pool. If she does kick her legs a bit it’s for one second and then she winges she’s tired. I’m getting really frustrated and also worried she will never swim. It’s also feeling like money going down the drain with all the lessons. Has any swim mams got any ideas that might motivate her? Should I continue her lessons? Am I putting too much pressure on her? I can’t afford private lessons so this is not an option really.

There’s usually a checklist of things they need to do to move up a stage.

either talk to the teacher or Google to find out what it is.

children often say they want to do something but don’t necessarily have the impulse control or the concentration to do so in class,

so whatever the teacher says, work on it with her on your own.

if necessary get noodle/etc and take her out of her depth but holding on to you and get her to focus on the specific skill.

I know you said you can't afford private but I've switched to private lessons every other week, rather than weekly group ones. It's costing me £10 more a month which I could do without, but am able to stretch to fortunately. The sudden progress is crazy, I think its been six lessons and he has passed stage 2, very close to oassing stage 3, and achieved his 25m... at the group lesson they'd told me he did 5m the week before we left.
It's less time in the pool a month obviously, but way more focused teaching time which means the teacher actually knows what he can do!

I really would recommend it if you can find someone who'll do every other week!

Hi OP, I have two kids in stage 3. Getting them through stage 1 took a lot of extra effort on my part on top of the weekly lessons. Don’t give up, it will suddenly click one day.

Do you ever take her into the big pool? And jumping into it? I did lots of getting mine to jump around while holding onto my hands as I pulled them forwards, just to get used to the feeling of swimming but without piling on the pressure. And if you can get another adult to go with you then even better.. she can jump/swim from one adult to the other, and have the joy of kicking and splashing water all over you.

If you’re going to use bribery (we’ve all been there!) then maybe make the goals a bit smaller. A small treat for taking her feet off the floor in the next lesson? Then up it to needing to taker her feet off the floor every time the teacher asks them to swim across the pool the lesson after.

After 2 1/2 years I would be looking into private lessons or a half term week long course which many pools offer. If she's not focused in the group lessons which she obviously isn't then I would stop them. It's silly to keep spending money when she isn't getting anything out of it.

After she's moved up a few stages or is older maybe go back to group lessons.

Is she competitive? Does she like to win? Can you have a race with her? And encourage her to be fast. (Ie kick those legs!)

Both of my kids are ultra competitive. I have no idea how people parent when they can’t say things like “who is going to be the winner of the putting on your pyjamas race tonight?” 😂

I’d probably speak to the teacher about it!

The only other child I've seen make such slow process has ASD. Is something like this a possibility?

Thank you all for your kind and very helpful suggestions, this has given me some great ideas that hopefully will help DD to start making some progress!

Would she sit on the side and kick her legs, then progress using a float?

It sounds counterintuitive, but there are YouTube vids, which perhaps you could watch for tips on how to help your DC

After 2.5 years of no progress I’d definitely be speaking to their teacher.
Our local leisure centre was useless and when my DD was around 5/6 I saw no progress for 9 months but at the time I was distracted with a baby and toddler so didn’t really think too much of it. I eventually put in a complaint as the way I saw it that they were not doing their job properly and the “half hour” lesson was only ever really 20 minutes with all the faffing about. Anyhow they ended up offering a few free extra lessons and then moved her up a stage.

I had the same after 2 years at the local leisure centre. We joined a private class of 3 kids and she could swim within months. It’s cheaper in the long run!

It might just be bad luck but none of our DCs have progressed well in leisure centre lessons (we have lived in a few different areas). They just aren't very engaging and my DS2 said he found it very difficult to listen to the instructor over the noise of multiple different lessons crammed into the same pool. We found independant swim schools to be better 1-1 is ideal but if not the group lessons are a much better standard.

Honestly private lessons from the start is what I wished I'd done, would have saved £100s. You will rapidly accelerate her learning if you do it now. Also going into deeper water with her using a float, then she will have to kick.

I am definitely going to consider some 1:1/private lessons after reading everyone’s responses, as well as some of the other great ideas you have all come up with. I’m starting to feel more positive about DD learning to swim now! Thank you all so much!

It is so standardised to do years and years of swimming lessons but it really shouldn’t be this way. It shouldn’t take years to get a decent grasp of swimming, I think we start them too early or in too bigger class with not enough personalised tuition. I’m sure in the 90s when I was a kid we did about a year of lessons at about 7yo and then just went to the pool reasonably often at weekends (for fun!) and a term of school lessons in later primary. Very few people are going to be professional swimmers and yet all us parents (mums) are spending an hour+ a week at the leisure centre wrangling exhausted children into swimming caps and out of showers. With not a lot to show for it!
I’ve been going every Monday for 4 years and I’m bloody sick of it.

I completely agree! I want my son to be taught the basic techniques for efficient swimming, because I'm a poor swimmer myself (minor disability, doesn't effect much but does mean it takes a lot of effort for me to swim not very far compared to most people in the pool - it is not an enjoyable experience and I didn't want my son picking up on my attitude to it any more than my technique!)

I certainly don't want him ending up club level and requiring me to take him training at 5 am like my friend does with her daughter though 😂😂